katrina
01-04 02:52 PM
Hi,
I have a serious problem and I am not sure what would be the solution. My wife came on H4 in 2001 and we applied for H1B and we got an approval which was valid until Oct 2006. But, in Mar 2006, due to some personal reasons we applied for COS from H1B to H4 and we got H4 approval which was valid until Aug 27, 2006. Before the expiry of H4 status in August 2006, we decided to apply for H1B and since her H1B was valid until Oct 2006, our attorney applied for H1B under I-539 and they didn't apply for H4 extension simultaneously. Meanwhile, while the H1B was in process, we applied for premium processing later which added few problems. We got an RFE on this case and our attorney answered it by sending appropriate docs but again we got a second RFE which is not answered yet.
Right now she is out of status and also, what will happen if her H1 is rejected and is it possible to apply for H4 right now, since it was expired in Aug 2006. If her H1 is rejected, can we apply for H4 even though her H4 was expired few months back or she has leave the country. Please help us out.
Thanks & Regards,
-- Venkat
I-539 is the request to extend or change the immigrant status,
I don't think your wife can extend her H1b status after she change it to H4 by filled the I-539 from. The only exention in I-539 form is extension to stay.
I'm not a lawyer but as far as my experience, In order for a person who previously has H1b then has H4 get back to their H1b again, they have to reapply for a new H1b visa (the process kind a similar like transfer H1b since it will not count toward the caps).
My sugestion right now is consult with another lawyer and see what they suggest. If you have the ins receipt for the extension (from I-539), see what stated in it. Hold on to that receipt.
you can't rely of people opinion regarding your case, when you have trouble and if you have a good lawyer they should represent you and assure you that they did the right thing. If you're not sure about your lawyer ask another lawyer, keep looking for a lawyer that can give you suggestion and make sense.
Good luck.
I have a serious problem and I am not sure what would be the solution. My wife came on H4 in 2001 and we applied for H1B and we got an approval which was valid until Oct 2006. But, in Mar 2006, due to some personal reasons we applied for COS from H1B to H4 and we got H4 approval which was valid until Aug 27, 2006. Before the expiry of H4 status in August 2006, we decided to apply for H1B and since her H1B was valid until Oct 2006, our attorney applied for H1B under I-539 and they didn't apply for H4 extension simultaneously. Meanwhile, while the H1B was in process, we applied for premium processing later which added few problems. We got an RFE on this case and our attorney answered it by sending appropriate docs but again we got a second RFE which is not answered yet.
Right now she is out of status and also, what will happen if her H1 is rejected and is it possible to apply for H4 right now, since it was expired in Aug 2006. If her H1 is rejected, can we apply for H4 even though her H4 was expired few months back or she has leave the country. Please help us out.
Thanks & Regards,
-- Venkat
I-539 is the request to extend or change the immigrant status,
I don't think your wife can extend her H1b status after she change it to H4 by filled the I-539 from. The only exention in I-539 form is extension to stay.
I'm not a lawyer but as far as my experience, In order for a person who previously has H1b then has H4 get back to their H1b again, they have to reapply for a new H1b visa (the process kind a similar like transfer H1b since it will not count toward the caps).
My sugestion right now is consult with another lawyer and see what they suggest. If you have the ins receipt for the extension (from I-539), see what stated in it. Hold on to that receipt.
you can't rely of people opinion regarding your case, when you have trouble and if you have a good lawyer they should represent you and assure you that they did the right thing. If you're not sure about your lawyer ask another lawyer, keep looking for a lawyer that can give you suggestion and make sense.
Good luck.
rajeshbillabong
09-23 11:52 PM
Hi guys,
My wife's F-1 stamping visa got rejected (IInd time)in India, though she had H-4 to F-1 approved here in US by USCIS.
We really want the OPT option that F-1 gives.
Once she is back to US on H-4, is there any way that we can get the OPT since she has been maintaining her full time intl. status?
Can we do a lawyer since the embassy is "wrong" in denying the visa since USCIS already approved it and she has only one sem. remaining.
We are very worried. Please help.
best regards,
Rajesh
My wife's F-1 stamping visa got rejected (IInd time)in India, though she had H-4 to F-1 approved here in US by USCIS.
We really want the OPT option that F-1 gives.
Once she is back to US on H-4, is there any way that we can get the OPT since she has been maintaining her full time intl. status?
Can we do a lawyer since the embassy is "wrong" in denying the visa since USCIS already approved it and she has only one sem. remaining.
We are very worried. Please help.
best regards,
Rajesh
h1bemployee
06-25 01:57 PM
Hi Prasanthi,
In the denial letter they stated that
"The beneficiary may remain in the current immigration status until date indicated on Form I94.. ". My I-94 is valid till sep 30 2009 .... so even though my H1b transfer got denied ,will that save me from being out-of-status?
In the denial letter they stated that
"The beneficiary may remain in the current immigration status until date indicated on Form I94.. ". My I-94 is valid till sep 30 2009 .... so even though my H1b transfer got denied ,will that save me from being out-of-status?
thomachan72
09-11 04:35 PM
There seems to be two waiting with PD 2003??? who are these people and what is their issue?? please let us know what your problem is? People with PD early 2005 are being aproved and you are still waiting? does not make any sense. You need to do something.
more...
frankiesaysrelax
01-19 03:50 PM
I sent out my letter to the prez (and the IV copy) last week. The ones who are lurking here right now without having done that yet: you have no excuse. At a minimum, it will cost you first class postage, a print out of the contents, a sign at the bottom and a trip to the mailbox. If you feel lazy about it, shame on you. If you think it will not make a difference, think again. Not only you are wrong, you have no idea by how much. If you open your mind a bit and send me a PM, I will send you personal anecdotes on how it made a difference for individuals and that too when it was not even part of a concerted effort like this.
sreeanne
02-04 05:30 PM
Me and my were indian nationals with EAD etc. Our Kid was born here. We are planning to go to India and planning to apply for Visa for our kid.
I would like to know 10year indian visa is best of PIO card is best. I read some where that if any one has PIO card, and if they are staying more than 180days, we have to report to Foriegners Report cell in india.
Do we need to report the same if kid has india visa for 10years?
I am not sure how far this is true? Can anyone guide on this.
~Sree
I would like to know 10year indian visa is best of PIO card is best. I read some where that if any one has PIO card, and if they are staying more than 180days, we have to report to Foriegners Report cell in india.
Do we need to report the same if kid has india visa for 10years?
I am not sure how far this is true? Can anyone guide on this.
~Sree
more...
eb3_nepa
08-10 05:10 PM
May be he or she has a spouse whose birth country is non retrogressed .. :)
Even THEN it is not possible. Coz the June 2007 bulletin says that even ROW has to be atlest June 2005. His PD was Dec 2005 so there is NO way he could have applied.
Even THEN it is not possible. Coz the June 2007 bulletin says that even ROW has to be atlest June 2005. His PD was Dec 2005 so there is NO way he could have applied.
ski_dude12
04-01 05:51 PM
Why did you not stick with the approved labor with company A, thus retaining the priority date of Nov 2006???
If you used substitution labor just to get ahead of others who are in the line, then I hope no one answers your query. I won't be as critical as zCool but substitute labor cases are repulsive.
If you used substitution labor just to get ahead of others who are in the line, then I hope no one answers your query. I won't be as critical as zCool but substitute labor cases are repulsive.
more...
GCcomesoon
10-31 02:39 PM
Its been more than 90 days for me and I don't have even a receipt no.Lawyer says that things have been delayed. Can it be delayed so much that I don't have even receipt no ? :confused:
Hi
I got my EAD approved last week on 10/25 after 143 days.I had made 2 info pass appointments, had called USCIS & created 2 service requests after which I guess even my attorney had called USCIS . Only after all this , the message on USCIS online showed that "Card ordered" Actually I have to still receive my physical card in hand. Can you believe even my FP is pending for last almost 5 months now ?
Thanks
GCcomesoon
Priority date - 05/2003
140 approved - 10/2006 from TSC
485,131,765 RD-6/04/2007 at TSC, notices received - 06/07/2007
CA, EB2
Wife's case returned due to some error,send it again & received on 06/17/2007 as per Fedex
Wife's case RD- 7/10/2007
LUD in my case - I131 - 7/10/07, approved - 7/24/07
LUD in my case - 1131,485,765, - 7/11/07
LUD in spouse's case - I131-7/11/07
EAD cleared for spouse - 08/20/07
FP for spouse - 08/08/07 , I rescheduled it.
FP scheduled - 10/03/07 - Done
AP approved for spouse - 09/12/07
EAD -10/25 - message - Card ordered online.
Still waiting for actual EAD card & FP
Hi
I got my EAD approved last week on 10/25 after 143 days.I had made 2 info pass appointments, had called USCIS & created 2 service requests after which I guess even my attorney had called USCIS . Only after all this , the message on USCIS online showed that "Card ordered" Actually I have to still receive my physical card in hand. Can you believe even my FP is pending for last almost 5 months now ?
Thanks
GCcomesoon
Priority date - 05/2003
140 approved - 10/2006 from TSC
485,131,765 RD-6/04/2007 at TSC, notices received - 06/07/2007
CA, EB2
Wife's case returned due to some error,send it again & received on 06/17/2007 as per Fedex
Wife's case RD- 7/10/2007
LUD in my case - I131 - 7/10/07, approved - 7/24/07
LUD in my case - 1131,485,765, - 7/11/07
LUD in spouse's case - I131-7/11/07
EAD cleared for spouse - 08/20/07
FP for spouse - 08/08/07 , I rescheduled it.
FP scheduled - 10/03/07 - Done
AP approved for spouse - 09/12/07
EAD -10/25 - message - Card ordered online.
Still waiting for actual EAD card & FP
purgan
11-11 10:32 AM
Randell,
Congratulations on getting the attention of the Times, and your tireless efforts in spreading word of the broken legal immigration system.
===
New York Times
Immigration, a Love Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/12green.html
WHEN Kenneth Harrell Jr., an Assemblies of God minister in South Carolina, invited Gricelda Molina to join his Spanish ministry in 2000, it didn’t take him long to realize he had found the woman he had been waiting for. On the telephone and during romantic strolls they talked about their goals, their commitment to God and how many children each would like to have. Six months flew by, and he asked her to marry him.
“She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, very gentle, very sincere,” Mr. Harrell said. But Ms. Molina, a factory worker, was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who had crossed into the United States twice, having once been deported. Mr. Harrell, the pastor of Airport Assembly of God church in West Columbia, said he was not too concerned. “Whatever came, we would walk through this path together,” he said.
Mr. Harrell and Ms. Molina, both 35, married in 2001, in a large wedding attended by family from both sides and blessed by pastors in English and Spanish. But the Harrells no longer live together, not because of divorce, but because Mrs. Harrell, now the mother of two sons and four months pregnant with their third child, has been deported. She had applied for legal residency, or a green card, with her new husband as her sponsor, Mr. Harrell said, but she was sent back to Honduras 20 months ago because of her illegal entries and told she would have to wait 10 years to try again.
“Illegals are pouring over the border,” said Mr. Harrell, who has visited his family five times. “We meet them, we fall in love with them, we marry them. And then the government tears your family apart, and they take no responsibility for letting them in, in the first place.”
Falling in love and marching toward marriage is not always easy, but a particular brand of heartache and hardship can await when one of the partners is in this country illegally. The uncertainty of such a union has only been heightened by the national debate over illegal immigration. Whether the new Democratic leadership in Congress will help people like the Harrells remains to be seen.
It is hard to quantify how many people find themselves in Mr. Harrell’s situation, but with stepped-up enforcement in recent years, deportations have increased, and so have fears of losing a loved one in that way. (There were 168,310 removals in 2005, compared with 108,000 in 2000, immigration officials said.)
And that is only one byproduct of love between two people with such uneven places in society, immigration lawyers say. Many relationships strain under the financial burden of hiring lawyers for what can turn into years of visiting government offices, producing pictures, tax records and other evidence of a legitimate marriage in the quest for legalization. And while instances of immigrants faking love for a green card are in the minority, according to immigration officials, some couples feel pressure to marry before they are ready, hoping that marriage will prevent a loved one’s deportation.
Raul Godinez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said: “I ask people, ‘How much do you love this person? Because immigration is going to test your marriage.’ If you don’t feel it’s going to be a strong marriage, I wouldn’t do it.”
Many people may still believe that obtaining legal status through marriage is easy, because of periodic reports of marriage scams. In a three-year investigation called Operation Newlywed Game, immigration and customs enforcement agents caught more than 40 suspects in California for allegedly orchestrating sham marriages between hundreds of Chinese or Vietnamese nationals and United States citizens. But such fraud occurs in only a minority of cases, federal officials said.
In reality, immigration lawyers said, marrying a citizen does not automatically entitle the spouse to a green card and is only the first step in a long bureaucratic journey. The lawyers noted that changes in the law in the last five years have made this legalization path increasingly difficult, one worth choosing only if true love is at stake. (Other routes include sponsorship by immediate family members or an employer.)
The Harrells said they had no idea how difficult it could be and were shocked when Mrs. Harrell’s application for permanent residence was turned down, leaving them only 12 days to prepare for her departure. In that time, Mr. Harrell said, they decided that the children, now 4 and 3, would go with her. So Mr. Harrell obtained passports for them, and the church held a farewell service.
“It was very traumatic,” he said. “Our whole world was crashing around us.”
In Yoro, in north central Honduras, where Mrs. Harrell and the children live with her parents, she said the older boy constantly asks for his father, begging, “Let’s go to my papa’s house.” She has coped with her own dejection, too. “I know how much work he has over there,” she said by telephone. “He needs his wife.”
But even in the best of circumstances, when an immigrant enters the country legally, couples may have to rearrange their lives and defer their dreams.
Paola Emery, a jewelry designer, and her husband, Randall Emery, a computer consultant in Philadelphia, said they delayed having children and buying a house for the nearly four years it took the government to complete a background check for Mrs. Emery, who had entered the country from Colombia with a tourist visa and applied for permanent residency after they married in 2002.
Mrs. Emery, 27, said lawyers advised them it was not wise for her to risk trouble by visiting her close-knit family in Colombia and then trying to re-enter this country. She said she was absent through weddings, illnesses and even the kidnapping and rescue of an uncle.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Mrs. Emery said.
Officials with the Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department say that delays lasting years are rare, but some immigration lawyers say they see clients who wait three to four years for security clearance. Mrs. Emery and her husband, 34, sued Homeland Security over the delays, and she was finally cleared last May. By then Mr. Emery had helped form American Families United, a group of citizens who have sponsored immediate family members for immigration, and which advocates immigration-law change to keep families together. Immigration Services officials say they are not out to impede love or immigration. Nearly 260,000 spouses of citizens received permanent residency through marriage last year, out of 1.1 million people who became permanent residents, according to the Immigration Services office. “The goal is to give people who are eligible the benefit,” said Marie T. Sebrechts, its spokeswoman in Southern California. She said the agency does not comment on individual cases.
When a legal immigrant is sponsored by an American spouse, she said, the green card can be obtained in as little as six months. But with complications like an illegal entry, laws are not that benevolent, Ms. Sebrechts said. In those cases, the immigrant usually must return to the home country and wait 3 to 10 years to apply for residency, though waivers are sometimes granted.
Such obstacles are far from the minds of couples when they meet. And for some, so is the idea to question whether the beloved feels equally in love with them.
Sharyn T. Sooho, a divorce lawyer and a founder of divorcenet.com, a Web site for divorcing couples, said she has represented American spouses who realized too late that the person they married was more interested in a green card than in living happily ever after. “They feel conflicted, used and abused,” she said. “It’s a quick marriage, and suddenly the person who was so sweet is turning into a nightmare.”
But more often, said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, couples marry before they are ready because “there’s fear that if you don’t do this, somebody is going to get deported.”
Krystal Rivera, 18, a college student in Los Angeles, and her boyfriend fall into this group. Ms. Rivera is set on marrying in April 2008, even as she worries that it may put too much pressure on the relationship.
“I never wanted to follow the Hispanic ritual of getting married early,” said Ms. Rivera, a native of Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Mexico.
She said she fell in love at 13 with a Mexican-born boy who sang in the church choir with her. “He started poking me, and I said ‘Stop it!’ ” she remembered.
Ms. Rivera is still in love with the boy, now 19, who was brought into the country illegally by his mother when he was 12. He goes to college and wants to become a teacher, while she hopes to become a doctor.
But for those plans to work, Ms. Rivera said, she needs to help him legalize his status. She said she has witnessed his frustration as he dealt with employers who didn’t pay what they owed him or struggled to find better jobs than his current one as a line cook. Because of his illegal status, he is unable to get a driver’s license or visit the brothers he left in Mexico. “We want to be normal,” Ms. Rivera said.
The Harrells, too, have decided to take charge. After months of exploring how to reunite the family and spending thousands of dollars on lawyers, Mr. Harrell has decided to leave his small congregation, sell his house and join his wife in Honduras. He will be a missionary for his church for a fraction of the $40,000 a year he makes as a minister.
Congratulations on getting the attention of the Times, and your tireless efforts in spreading word of the broken legal immigration system.
===
New York Times
Immigration, a Love Story
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/fashion/12green.html
WHEN Kenneth Harrell Jr., an Assemblies of God minister in South Carolina, invited Gricelda Molina to join his Spanish ministry in 2000, it didn’t take him long to realize he had found the woman he had been waiting for. On the telephone and during romantic strolls they talked about their goals, their commitment to God and how many children each would like to have. Six months flew by, and he asked her to marry him.
“She’s a beautiful woman with a beautiful spirit, very gentle, very sincere,” Mr. Harrell said. But Ms. Molina, a factory worker, was also an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who had crossed into the United States twice, having once been deported. Mr. Harrell, the pastor of Airport Assembly of God church in West Columbia, said he was not too concerned. “Whatever came, we would walk through this path together,” he said.
Mr. Harrell and Ms. Molina, both 35, married in 2001, in a large wedding attended by family from both sides and blessed by pastors in English and Spanish. But the Harrells no longer live together, not because of divorce, but because Mrs. Harrell, now the mother of two sons and four months pregnant with their third child, has been deported. She had applied for legal residency, or a green card, with her new husband as her sponsor, Mr. Harrell said, but she was sent back to Honduras 20 months ago because of her illegal entries and told she would have to wait 10 years to try again.
“Illegals are pouring over the border,” said Mr. Harrell, who has visited his family five times. “We meet them, we fall in love with them, we marry them. And then the government tears your family apart, and they take no responsibility for letting them in, in the first place.”
Falling in love and marching toward marriage is not always easy, but a particular brand of heartache and hardship can await when one of the partners is in this country illegally. The uncertainty of such a union has only been heightened by the national debate over illegal immigration. Whether the new Democratic leadership in Congress will help people like the Harrells remains to be seen.
It is hard to quantify how many people find themselves in Mr. Harrell’s situation, but with stepped-up enforcement in recent years, deportations have increased, and so have fears of losing a loved one in that way. (There were 168,310 removals in 2005, compared with 108,000 in 2000, immigration officials said.)
And that is only one byproduct of love between two people with such uneven places in society, immigration lawyers say. Many relationships strain under the financial burden of hiring lawyers for what can turn into years of visiting government offices, producing pictures, tax records and other evidence of a legitimate marriage in the quest for legalization. And while instances of immigrants faking love for a green card are in the minority, according to immigration officials, some couples feel pressure to marry before they are ready, hoping that marriage will prevent a loved one’s deportation.
Raul Godinez, an immigration lawyer in Los Angeles, said: “I ask people, ‘How much do you love this person? Because immigration is going to test your marriage.’ If you don’t feel it’s going to be a strong marriage, I wouldn’t do it.”
Many people may still believe that obtaining legal status through marriage is easy, because of periodic reports of marriage scams. In a three-year investigation called Operation Newlywed Game, immigration and customs enforcement agents caught more than 40 suspects in California for allegedly orchestrating sham marriages between hundreds of Chinese or Vietnamese nationals and United States citizens. But such fraud occurs in only a minority of cases, federal officials said.
In reality, immigration lawyers said, marrying a citizen does not automatically entitle the spouse to a green card and is only the first step in a long bureaucratic journey. The lawyers noted that changes in the law in the last five years have made this legalization path increasingly difficult, one worth choosing only if true love is at stake. (Other routes include sponsorship by immediate family members or an employer.)
The Harrells said they had no idea how difficult it could be and were shocked when Mrs. Harrell’s application for permanent residence was turned down, leaving them only 12 days to prepare for her departure. In that time, Mr. Harrell said, they decided that the children, now 4 and 3, would go with her. So Mr. Harrell obtained passports for them, and the church held a farewell service.
“It was very traumatic,” he said. “Our whole world was crashing around us.”
In Yoro, in north central Honduras, where Mrs. Harrell and the children live with her parents, she said the older boy constantly asks for his father, begging, “Let’s go to my papa’s house.” She has coped with her own dejection, too. “I know how much work he has over there,” she said by telephone. “He needs his wife.”
But even in the best of circumstances, when an immigrant enters the country legally, couples may have to rearrange their lives and defer their dreams.
Paola Emery, a jewelry designer, and her husband, Randall Emery, a computer consultant in Philadelphia, said they delayed having children and buying a house for the nearly four years it took the government to complete a background check for Mrs. Emery, who had entered the country from Colombia with a tourist visa and applied for permanent residency after they married in 2002.
Mrs. Emery, 27, said lawyers advised them it was not wise for her to risk trouble by visiting her close-knit family in Colombia and then trying to re-enter this country. She said she was absent through weddings, illnesses and even the kidnapping and rescue of an uncle.
“I felt like I was in jail,” Mrs. Emery said.
Officials with the Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Homeland Security Department say that delays lasting years are rare, but some immigration lawyers say they see clients who wait three to four years for security clearance. Mrs. Emery and her husband, 34, sued Homeland Security over the delays, and she was finally cleared last May. By then Mr. Emery had helped form American Families United, a group of citizens who have sponsored immediate family members for immigration, and which advocates immigration-law change to keep families together. Immigration Services officials say they are not out to impede love or immigration. Nearly 260,000 spouses of citizens received permanent residency through marriage last year, out of 1.1 million people who became permanent residents, according to the Immigration Services office. “The goal is to give people who are eligible the benefit,” said Marie T. Sebrechts, its spokeswoman in Southern California. She said the agency does not comment on individual cases.
When a legal immigrant is sponsored by an American spouse, she said, the green card can be obtained in as little as six months. But with complications like an illegal entry, laws are not that benevolent, Ms. Sebrechts said. In those cases, the immigrant usually must return to the home country and wait 3 to 10 years to apply for residency, though waivers are sometimes granted.
Such obstacles are far from the minds of couples when they meet. And for some, so is the idea to question whether the beloved feels equally in love with them.
Sharyn T. Sooho, a divorce lawyer and a founder of divorcenet.com, a Web site for divorcing couples, said she has represented American spouses who realized too late that the person they married was more interested in a green card than in living happily ever after. “They feel conflicted, used and abused,” she said. “It’s a quick marriage, and suddenly the person who was so sweet is turning into a nightmare.”
But more often, said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, couples marry before they are ready because “there’s fear that if you don’t do this, somebody is going to get deported.”
Krystal Rivera, 18, a college student in Los Angeles, and her boyfriend fall into this group. Ms. Rivera is set on marrying in April 2008, even as she worries that it may put too much pressure on the relationship.
“I never wanted to follow the Hispanic ritual of getting married early,” said Ms. Rivera, a native of Los Angeles whose parents emigrated from Mexico.
She said she fell in love at 13 with a Mexican-born boy who sang in the church choir with her. “He started poking me, and I said ‘Stop it!’ ” she remembered.
Ms. Rivera is still in love with the boy, now 19, who was brought into the country illegally by his mother when he was 12. He goes to college and wants to become a teacher, while she hopes to become a doctor.
But for those plans to work, Ms. Rivera said, she needs to help him legalize his status. She said she has witnessed his frustration as he dealt with employers who didn’t pay what they owed him or struggled to find better jobs than his current one as a line cook. Because of his illegal status, he is unable to get a driver’s license or visit the brothers he left in Mexico. “We want to be normal,” Ms. Rivera said.
The Harrells, too, have decided to take charge. After months of exploring how to reunite the family and spending thousands of dollars on lawyers, Mr. Harrell has decided to leave his small congregation, sell his house and join his wife in Honduras. He will be a missionary for his church for a fraction of the $40,000 a year he makes as a minister.
more...
snathan
01-22 07:36 PM
I hate the word Donate but somehow I donated blood which will be sent to Haiti. I did some in monies. Life is life no matter who it is.
Can you provide more details...?
Can you provide more details...?
va_il
05-16 02:46 PM
Hi,
Our 485 is pending for quite some time with no updates even though we recently went for our FP. Earlier we used to see an update when we log into our account on USCIS.
I would like to meet with Congressman/Senator to find my case status and give it a push. My objective is to get an exact status of my case and why its delayed and also to find the name check status.
Could anyone please suggest how to go about this i have never met with lawmakers before. How should i book an appointment and what should i say it is for? What information they would need from me to pursue my request?
Btw i live in Northern Virginia .. who should i visit ?
Would i be meeting with lawmaker or only with their staff?
Do i have to take the USCIS and FBI contact info for them to call? Mine is pending in NSC.
Appreciate any guidance in this regard from people who has gone thru this path before. I hope contacting Congressman wouldn't have a negative effect on my case.
-A
Our 485 is pending for quite some time with no updates even though we recently went for our FP. Earlier we used to see an update when we log into our account on USCIS.
I would like to meet with Congressman/Senator to find my case status and give it a push. My objective is to get an exact status of my case and why its delayed and also to find the name check status.
Could anyone please suggest how to go about this i have never met with lawmakers before. How should i book an appointment and what should i say it is for? What information they would need from me to pursue my request?
Btw i live in Northern Virginia .. who should i visit ?
Would i be meeting with lawmaker or only with their staff?
Do i have to take the USCIS and FBI contact info for them to call? Mine is pending in NSC.
Appreciate any guidance in this regard from people who has gone thru this path before. I hope contacting Congressman wouldn't have a negative effect on my case.
-A
more...
gc_maine2
07-12 02:11 PM
http://immigrationvoice.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6319
In this thread people are discussing mostly for the July 485 cases, so the name is not exactly the "485 rejection", but similar situations are discussed here.
Thanks
Do you know which thread? I tried some searching but I found a poll but not the details of 485 that were rejected
In this thread people are discussing mostly for the July 485 cases, so the name is not exactly the "485 rejection", but similar situations are discussed here.
Thanks
Do you know which thread? I tried some searching but I found a poll but not the details of 485 that were rejected
GCNOMAD
03-07 01:51 PM
Hi,
I was exactly in your same situation last year - When I re-entered the country, I was given an I-94 till the pp validity, later I renewed the pp promptly but overlooked the I-94 end date and realized it after a month. Following is my story and what I did.
When I noticed the I-94, seriously I dint know its expiry implications, but casually mentioned it to my employer,,,for just in case reasons. They guy was so upset and put me on to the company attorney for further advice. First I was adviced to approach the local CPB office, which I did, but turned down by the CPB office saying that I need to leave the country and re-enter !!!. But its very inconsistent with different CPB offices, because I read that some CPB offices (the one in chicago I think) entertains and give a new I-94, but most of them dont. So now I was left with only one option to go out of the country and re-enter. So applied and got canada visit visa, I booked a weekend flight to Vancouver Canada, flew out and returned back in a day and I was issued a normal I-94 now untill the end date of the visa !!!. Ridiculous as it sounds, to spend that much money for nothing. But blame the broken system. Infact to avoid the canada visa option, I was shopping for flights to India, just to go for one day and come back and the travel consultant was literally laughing at me that I am going all the way for just a touch down...She cant understand my pain.
Some lessons learned from my above experiences and some points that might help you -
1. The truth is, when your I-94 expires, you immediately loose your authority to work
2. There is a misconception in H1 world that you can continue for 180 days. But the 180 days time frame is just a time window for you to leave the country. Again, you can stay here for 180 days before you leave, but you cannot work.
3. Try your luck with the nearest CPB office, if you are close to chicago you have better chance I guess, but I tried in LA and they bluntly said that I need to leave.
4. In my case, though the I-94 expired, fortunately by God's grace, I had my 485 applied / EAD approved, so the attorney said that I have no complications to continue work (dual status), but have to renew the I-94 if want to maintain the H1 status.
Take the above 4th point as its appropirate for you case.
5. When you go to the CPB office, just pretend innocent and tell that you need to renew I-94. But if they refuse, DON'T keep negotiating for long, because they may put you in trouble.
6. If CPB office visit doesnt work out, then quickly take a flight out and return back. When you go to Canada, most of the cases the airline takes the I-94 from you, if they dont, then take it away yourself.
7. Either to Canada or Mexico, dont plan on travelling by car. Fly out and fly in so that you have sure chance of getting new I-94.
8. There are ways that you can apply for the extension of I-94 here itself but your attorney has to go thru USCIS procedures and its very complicated.
After going thru all those documentation pains for applying for H1, and later after the approval after all those awfull experiences to get appointment/stamping at the american consulate in India, you get the feeling that you are fully authorized to work in US. But still that small piece of paper issued during the entry has this much importance. Its illogical that you can renew your passport sitting inside the US, but for that piece of I-94 paper you need to go out and come. Give me a reason to prove that this is not a broken system.
And before I go,,,, here is something to laugh. My wife and kid when they re-entered US, their passport expiry was before the visa end date, but guess what, their I-94 was correctly/(or mistakenly) given untill the visa end date !!! Anyway, thru some immigration officer's mistake God saved my wife and kid from going thru what I went thru...
I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck to get it in the local CPB office itself.
God Bless.
I was exactly in your same situation last year - When I re-entered the country, I was given an I-94 till the pp validity, later I renewed the pp promptly but overlooked the I-94 end date and realized it after a month. Following is my story and what I did.
When I noticed the I-94, seriously I dint know its expiry implications, but casually mentioned it to my employer,,,for just in case reasons. They guy was so upset and put me on to the company attorney for further advice. First I was adviced to approach the local CPB office, which I did, but turned down by the CPB office saying that I need to leave the country and re-enter !!!. But its very inconsistent with different CPB offices, because I read that some CPB offices (the one in chicago I think) entertains and give a new I-94, but most of them dont. So now I was left with only one option to go out of the country and re-enter. So applied and got canada visit visa, I booked a weekend flight to Vancouver Canada, flew out and returned back in a day and I was issued a normal I-94 now untill the end date of the visa !!!. Ridiculous as it sounds, to spend that much money for nothing. But blame the broken system. Infact to avoid the canada visa option, I was shopping for flights to India, just to go for one day and come back and the travel consultant was literally laughing at me that I am going all the way for just a touch down...She cant understand my pain.
Some lessons learned from my above experiences and some points that might help you -
1. The truth is, when your I-94 expires, you immediately loose your authority to work
2. There is a misconception in H1 world that you can continue for 180 days. But the 180 days time frame is just a time window for you to leave the country. Again, you can stay here for 180 days before you leave, but you cannot work.
3. Try your luck with the nearest CPB office, if you are close to chicago you have better chance I guess, but I tried in LA and they bluntly said that I need to leave.
4. In my case, though the I-94 expired, fortunately by God's grace, I had my 485 applied / EAD approved, so the attorney said that I have no complications to continue work (dual status), but have to renew the I-94 if want to maintain the H1 status.
Take the above 4th point as its appropirate for you case.
5. When you go to the CPB office, just pretend innocent and tell that you need to renew I-94. But if they refuse, DON'T keep negotiating for long, because they may put you in trouble.
6. If CPB office visit doesnt work out, then quickly take a flight out and return back. When you go to Canada, most of the cases the airline takes the I-94 from you, if they dont, then take it away yourself.
7. Either to Canada or Mexico, dont plan on travelling by car. Fly out and fly in so that you have sure chance of getting new I-94.
8. There are ways that you can apply for the extension of I-94 here itself but your attorney has to go thru USCIS procedures and its very complicated.
After going thru all those documentation pains for applying for H1, and later after the approval after all those awfull experiences to get appointment/stamping at the american consulate in India, you get the feeling that you are fully authorized to work in US. But still that small piece of paper issued during the entry has this much importance. Its illogical that you can renew your passport sitting inside the US, but for that piece of I-94 paper you need to go out and come. Give me a reason to prove that this is not a broken system.
And before I go,,,, here is something to laugh. My wife and kid when they re-entered US, their passport expiry was before the visa end date, but guess what, their I-94 was correctly/(or mistakenly) given untill the visa end date !!! Anyway, thru some immigration officer's mistake God saved my wife and kid from going thru what I went thru...
I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck to get it in the local CPB office itself.
God Bless.
more...
smuggymba
05-19 01:47 PM
In india we celebrate the bharat pravasi diwas (NRI Day) and PM is in attendance. Remittance to India is a big boost to the economy.
PM should give a hint to Obama on EB issues but I don't expect PM to help me get my GC. Bharat Pravasi diwas is a good way to initiate this dialogue within the NRI community.
PM should give a hint to Obama on EB issues but I don't expect PM to help me get my GC. Bharat Pravasi diwas is a good way to initiate this dialogue within the NRI community.
immi_enthu
09-28 06:01 PM
i am in the same boat. receipt notice says Jul5 25 .. online september 15 ( I guess it is notice date)
when did your application reach USCIS. yes the online date is Notice Date.
when did your application reach USCIS. yes the online date is Notice Date.
more...
GCSOON-Ihope
08-23 10:50 AM
:) I have a pending I-485 dated May/2003, my LC PD is May/2002.. I'm EB3 world... and I was looking at my receipt notice (I-485) and the priority date box is blank. How am I sure that USCIS actually knows that my PD is May/2002 ?? Should that info appear in the proper box?? or they just know it when they entry it in the system as my LC was sent with the application? Please let me know if I should remind them or it's is just a waste of time as they already know it. Last time I called they told me that everything was ok with my file and that they were just wating for a visa number.
Thanks in advance for any help. :D
My PD is 01/2002, so you can imagine what I felt when the September bulletin was out (I am EB3 world with 485 already filed 08/2004)!
Now, I just called USCIS and they confirmed to me that indeed the Priority Date shows only on I-140, not I-485, so eveything is OK! Don't worry and be happy!
Thanks in advance for any help. :D
My PD is 01/2002, so you can imagine what I felt when the September bulletin was out (I am EB3 world with 485 already filed 08/2004)!
Now, I just called USCIS and they confirmed to me that indeed the Priority Date shows only on I-140, not I-485, so eveything is OK! Don't worry and be happy!
gjoe
08-21 02:35 PM
Here you go. Are you one of the air signs ? :D
If your answer is yes I will guess you sign
If your answer is yes I will guess you sign
supreet
06-07 04:42 PM
Hi Surpreet,
Did you explore more on ARRA? Is it OK to take that benifit during AOS?
Thanks
Hi Dhundhun,
Sorry for my late response. After thinking long and hard, I have actually taken ARRA for my health insurance. I have decided not to go for Unemplyment. I read about a specific case somewhere online where an applicant got a RFE on his 485 after applying for unemployement. I am not sure if RFE was because of unemployement, but on that forum a lot of people suspected that applying for umpl could be one of the reasons.
For me, I was really running out of options, without ARRA, health insurance would have costed me over $1500 so I went for it.
Thanks
Did you explore more on ARRA? Is it OK to take that benifit during AOS?
Thanks
Hi Dhundhun,
Sorry for my late response. After thinking long and hard, I have actually taken ARRA for my health insurance. I have decided not to go for Unemplyment. I read about a specific case somewhere online where an applicant got a RFE on his 485 after applying for unemployement. I am not sure if RFE was because of unemployement, but on that forum a lot of people suspected that applying for umpl could be one of the reasons.
For me, I was really running out of options, without ARRA, health insurance would have costed me over $1500 so I went for it.
Thanks
smuggymba
09-14 02:12 PM
If you feel IV is our only hope/interpreter, then lets fuel it.
We all know IV needs funds to operate and to drive our concerns.
I propose $100K raffle every month, result will be announced on the VB day, if VB brings bad news atleast our raffle may get a good one! :D
each ticket may be sold for $10 ,
$10 x 20,000 tickets = 200k
100k for IV , 100k can be split to top 10 winners.
Please take your poll above.
Experts can add suggestions to help it construct.
There are less than 1000 replies in the I-485 voting thread and no money is required...how do you plan to sell 20K tickets to only a few "active" members?
We all know IV needs funds to operate and to drive our concerns.
I propose $100K raffle every month, result will be announced on the VB day, if VB brings bad news atleast our raffle may get a good one! :D
each ticket may be sold for $10 ,
$10 x 20,000 tickets = 200k
100k for IV , 100k can be split to top 10 winners.
Please take your poll above.
Experts can add suggestions to help it construct.
There are less than 1000 replies in the I-485 voting thread and no money is required...how do you plan to sell 20K tickets to only a few "active" members?
paskal
10-02 05:03 PM
C'mon folks...after San Jose and DC we look up to you for inspiration. The awe inspiring energy and motivation of the Cal chapters will serve as as an example for all others.
You guys are fortunate to have able leaders and energetic volunteers. This is the time to join the party! We are quietly harnessing the gains from the Dc rally and we continue to hope that there will yet be relief forthcoming soon. Nothing will happen though without your active support and participation.
Please help make the SoCal gathering a resounding success!
You guys are fortunate to have able leaders and energetic volunteers. This is the time to join the party! We are quietly harnessing the gains from the Dc rally and we continue to hope that there will yet be relief forthcoming soon. Nothing will happen though without your active support and participation.
Please help make the SoCal gathering a resounding success!
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